RE: Ignition Coil

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Pete Komen by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <pkomen-at-zianet-dot-com>

Jason,

The answer to you question is in the archives, but...

The recommended circuit was to wire a 2uF run cap (I tried more and like
5uF) in series with the coil and parallel the cap and coil with a power
resister (300 watts at least) of about 25 ohms.  The automotive coils are
not ballasted.  They run 12v or have a capacitor discharge through them.

Regards,

Pete - New Mexico

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2001 1:52 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Ignition Coil

Original poster: "Jason by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<jasonp-at-btinternet-dot-com>

Hi all,

I just got my hands on a new ignition coil from Unipart. I hooked up a
dimmer switch, and started to draw arcs. Suddenly, a cloud of white smoke
erupted from the dimmer, and the wire wound on the ferrite core has
literally melted. What am I doing wrong? Should I have used a ballast
resistor? The dimmer was only 240W but I thought that ignition coils were
ballasted to much less than that!!! Previously with the same igntion coil I
have used 20uF of PFC caps, and it worked ok but with the dimmer I got much
better arcs. Should I use a ballast resistor/capacitor to limit the current
in? Also what is the longest arc that I can draw from an ign. coil without
cooking it? Also, what current should I be using? Keep in mind that before I
have only used the PFC cap setup.

Thanks,
Jason